Faculty Publications

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/18736

Publications by NITK Faculty

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Environmental Monitoring

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 23
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Evaluation of water quality index for drinking purposes for river Netravathi, Mangalore, South India
    (2008) Avvannavar, S.M.; Shrihari, S.
    An attempt has been made to develop water quality index (WQI), using six water quality parameters Dissolved oxygen (DO), Biochemical oxygen Demand (BOD), Most Probable Number (MPN), Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and pH measured at eight different stations along the river basin. Rating curves were drawn based on the tolerance limits of inland waters and health point of view. Bhargava WQI method and Harmonic Mean WQI method were used to find overall WQI along the stretch of the river basin. Five point rating scale was used to classify water quality in each of the study areas. It was found that the water quality of Netravathi varied from Excellent to Marginal range by Bhargava WQI method and Excellent to Poor range by Harmonic Mean WQI method. It was observed that the impact of human activity was severe on most of the parameters. The MPN values exceeded the tolerable limits at almost all the stations. It was observed that the main cause of deterioration in water quality was due to the lack of proper sanitation, unprotected river sites and high anthropogenic activities. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Characterization and proinflammatory response of airborne biological particles from wastewater treatment plants
    (2011) Gangamma, S.; Patil, R.S.; Mukherji, S.
    Wastewater contains a variety of microorganisms, and unit operations in the plants could release these biological components into the air environment. These airborne biological particles could have adverse health effects on plant workers and the downwind population. This study provides a first report on the concentration and characterization of the airborne biological particles in six wastewater treatment plants in Mumbai, India. The study indicates that 49% and 27% of the samples exceed, respectively, the exposure limit for airborne endotoxin and bacteria in occupational settings. Endotoxin was identified as the single most important component of the particulate matter responsible for induction of proinflammatory indicator (tumor necrosis factor-?) in in vitro assay. Identification of several clinically important bacterial species in the samples suggests that the workers at the treatment plant are exposed to opportunistic and infectious bacteria. Principal component analysis was used to identify the groups among the bacterial species which serves as the signature for transport study. Analysis also shows that the component related to spore-forming bacteria is present in all samples. © 2011 American Chemical Society.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A rapid extractive spectrophotometric determination of copper(II) in environmental samples, alloys, complexes and pharmaceutical samples using 4-N,N(dimethyl)amino]benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone
    (2011) Karthikeyan, J.; Naik, P.P.; Nityananda Shetty, A.N.
    4-[N,N-(Dimethyl)amino]benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone (DMABT) is proposed as an analytical reagent for the extractive spectrophotometric determination of copper(II). DMABT forms yellow colored complex with copper(II) in the pH range 4.4-5.4. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range up to 4.7 ?g mL -1. The optimum concentration range for minimum photometric error as determined by Ringbom plot method is 1.2-3.8 ?g mL-1. The yellowish Cu(II)-DMABT complex shows a maximum absorbance at 420 nm, with molar absorptivity of 1.72 × 104dm3 mol-1 cm-1 and Sandell's sensitivity of the complex obtained from Beer's data is 0.0036 ?g cm-2. The composition of the Cu(II)-DMABT complex is found to be 1:2 (M/L). The interference of various cations and anions in the method were studied. Thus the method can be employed for the determination of trace amount of copper(II) in water, alloys and other natural samples of significant importance. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Characteristics of airborne bacteria in Mumbai urban environment
    (Elsevier, 2014) Gangamma, S.
    Components of biological origin constitute small but a significant proportion of the ambient airborne particulate matter (PM). However, their diversity and role in proinflammatory responses of PM are not well understood. The present study characterizes airborne bacterial species diversity in Mumbai City and elucidates the role of bacterial endotoxin in PM induced proinflammatory response in ex vivo. Airborne bacteria and endotoxin samples were collected during April-May 2010 in Mumbai using six stage microbial impactor and biosampler. The culturable bacterial species concentration was measured and factors influencing the composition were identified by principal component analysis (PCA). The biosampler samples were used to stimulate immune cells in whole blood assay. A total of 28 species belonging to 17 genera were identified. Gram positive and spore forming groups of bacteria dominated the airborne culturable bacterial concentration. The study indicated the dominance of spore forming and human or animal flora derived pathogenic/opportunistic bacteria in the ambient air environment. Pathogenic and opportunistic species of bacteria were also present in the samples. TNF-? induction by PM was reduced (35%) by polymyxin B pretreatment and this result was corroborated with the results of blocking endotoxin receptor cluster differentiation (CD14). The study highlights the importance of airborne biological particles and suggests need of further studies on biological characterization of ambient PM. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Source apportionment studies on particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) in ambient air of urban Mangalore, India
    (Academic Press, 2018) Kalaiarasan, G.; Mohan Balakrishnan, R.M.; Sethunath, N.A.; Manoharan, S.
    Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) samples were collected from six sites in urban Mangalore and the mass concentrations for PM10 and PM2.5 were measured using gravimetric technique. The measurements were found to exceed the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) limits, with the highest concentration of 231.5 ?g/m3 for PM10 particles at Town hall and 120.3 ?g/m3 for PM2.5 particles at KMC Attavar. The elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrophotometer (ICPOES) revealed twelve different elements (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sr and Zn) for PM10 particles and nine different elements (Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Zn) for PM2.5 particles. Similarly, ionic composition of these samples measured by ion chromatography (IC) divulged nine different ions (F?, Cl?, NO3 ?, PO4 3?, SO4 2?, Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) for PM10 particles and ten different ions (F?, Cl?, NO3 ?, PO4 3?, SO4 2?, Na+, NH4 +, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) for PM2.5 particles. The source apportionment study of PM10 and PM2.5 for urban Mangalore in accordance with these six sample sites using chemical mass balance model (CMBv8.2) revealed nine and twelve predominant contributors for both PM10 and PM2.5, respectively. The highest contributor of PM10 was found to be paved road dust followed by diesel and gasoline vehicle emissions. Correspondingly, PM2.5 was found to be contributed mainly from two-wheeler vehicle emissions followed by four-wheeler and heavy vehicle emissions (diesel vehicles). The current study depicts that the PM10 and PM2.5 in ambient air of Mangalore region has 70% of its contribution from vehicular emissions (both exhaust and non-exhaust). © 2018 Elsevier Ltd
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The impact of spatiotemporal patterns of land use land cover and land surface temperature on an urban cool island: a case study of Bengaluru
    (Springer International Publishing, 2019) Govind, N.R.; Ramesh, H.
    In most of the developing countries, man-made developments in the environment have led to the growing demand to contextualize the land use land cover (LULC) changes and land surface temperature (LST) variations. Due to the modification in the surface properties of the cities, a difference in energy balance between the cities and its nonurban surroundings is observed. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of LULC and LST and its interrelationship in Bengaluru urban district, India, during the period from 1989 to 2017 using remote sensing data. Intensity analysis was performed for the interval to analyze the LULC change and identify the driving forces. The impact of LULC change on LST was assessed using hot spot analysis (Getis–Ord Gi* statistics). The results of this study show that (a) dominant LULC change experienced is the increase in urban area (approximately 40%) and the rate of land use change was faster in the time period 1989–2001 than 2001–2017; (b) the major transition witnessed is from barren and agricultural land to urban; (c) over the period of 28 years, LST patterns for different land use classes exhibit an increasing trend with an overall increase of approximately 6 °C and the mean LST of urban area increased by about 8 °C; (d) LST pattern change can be effectively analyzed using hot spot analysis; and (e) as the urban expansion occurs, the cold spots have increased, and it is mainly clustered in the urban area. It confirms the presence of an urban cool island effect in Bengaluru urban district. The findings of this work can be used as a scientific basis for the sustainable development and land use planning of the region in the future. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Occurrence and environmental risks of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in urban wastewater in the southwest monsoon region of India
    (Springer, 2020) Thalla, A.K.; Vannarath, A.S.
    Municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs) are considered to reduce the amount of pollutants that enter water reservoirs as a result of wastewater disposal. An assessment of the occurrence and removal of pharmaceutical compounds, mainly nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), in wastewater from the Kavoor MWWTP (southwest monsoon region), India, is presented in this paper. The performance of the MWWTP was monitored in the summer (May) and monsoon (September) periods. The highest inlet concentrations of diclofenac, naproxen, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and acetylsalicylic acid in the wastewater were observed in May and were 721.37, 2132.48, 2109.875, 2747.29, and 2213.36 ?g/L, respectively. The ketoprofen content was found to be higher than that of other NSAIDs in the influent in both seasons, whereas the diclofenac content was found to be the lowest. The removal efficiency (RE) of the target NSAIDs in the Kavoor secondary treatment plant varied from 81.82–98.92% during the summer season. During the monsoon season, the influent NSAID concentration level dropped, probably because of infiltration in old sewer pipes. In addition, a 100% RE was achieved for all the target NSAIDs in the wastewater of the MWWTP. The results showed that secondary treatment plants have the potential to remove NSAID compounds from municipal sewage with consistent performance. The environmental hazards caused by the accumulation of such compounds in water reservoirs are due to open discharge. The environmental risk levels of these compounds were also studied by the environmental risk assessment (ERA) using the European Agency for Evaluation of Medicines approach. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Modelling stream flow and soil erosion response considering varied land practices in a cascading river basin
    (Academic Press, 2020) Venkatesh, K.; Ramesh, H.; Das, P.
    [No abstract available]
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Multivariate statistics and water quality index (WQI) approach for geochemical assessment of groundwater quality—a case study of Kanavi Halla Sub-Basin, Belagavi, India
    (Springer editorial@springerplus.com, 2020) B Patil, V.B.; Pinto, S.M.; Govindaraju, T.; Virupaksha, V.S.; Bhat, V.; Lokesh, K.N.
    Groundwater quality analysis has become essentially important in the present world scenario. In recent years, advanced technologies have replaced the traditional ones which are being helpful in simplifying the complex works. In this study, multivariate statistical analysis is carried out with the help of SPSS software for 45 groundwater samples of Kanavi Halla Sub-Basin (KHSB). The quality of groundwater is determined for various parameters which were analyzed and their concentration is correlated with other parameters using correlation matrix. The PCA technique is applied on water quality parameters, from which four components are extracted with 80.28% total variance. The extracted components suggest that the sources behind the higher loadings of each factor are by geological, agricultural, rainfall, domestic wastewater and industrial activities. Results of the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin and Bartlett’s test conducted have value of 0.659 which is greater than the standard value (0.5). Based on water quality index (WQI), it was noticeably depicted that 2/3rd of the KHSB groundwater quality falls under poor to very poor condition, and hardly 26% of groundwater available is portable. Thus, this study contributes the effective use of multivariate statistics and WQI analysis for groundwater quality. It helps in understanding the hydro-geochemistry of the groundwater and also aids in minimizing the larger set of data into smaller set with effective interpretation. © 2020, Springer Nature B.V.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Exploring the relationship between LST and land cover of Bengaluru by concentric ring approach
    (Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH info@springer-sbm.com, 2020) Govind, N.R.; Ramesh, H.
    The present study aims at investigating the impact of land cover features in enhancing or mitigating Land Surface Temperature (LST) in a semi-arid tropical metropolitan city of Bengaluru, India. Spatial distribution of LST and land cover types of the area were examined in the circumferential direction, and the contribution of land cover classes on LST was studied over 28 years. Urban growth and LST were modelled using Landsat and MODIS data for the years 1989, 2001, 2005 and 2017 based on the concentric ring approach. The study provides an efficient methodology for modelling and parameterisation of LST and urban growth by fitting an inverse S-curve into urban density (UD) and mean LST data. In addition, multiple linear regression models which could effectively predict the LST distribution based on land cover types were developed for both day and night time. Based on the analysis of remotely sensed data for LST, it is observed that over the years, urban core area has increased circumferentially from 5 to 10 km, and the urban growth has spread towards outskirts beyond 15 km from the city centre. As urban expansion occurs, the area under the study experiences an expansive cooling effect during day time; at night, an expansive heating effect is experienced in accordance with the growth in UD in the suburban area and outskirts. The regression models that were developed have relatively high accuracy with R2 value of more than 0.94 and could explain the relationship between LST and land cover types. The study also revealed that there exists a negative correlation between urban, vegetation, water body and LST during day time while a positive correlation is observed during night. Thus, this study could assist urban planners and policymakers in understanding the scientific basis for urban heating effect and predict LST for the future development for implementing green infrastructure. The proposed methodology could be applied to other urban areas for quantifying the distribution of LST and different land cover types and their interrelationships. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.